Ready Player One author Ernest Cline’s company Readyverse Studios has teased gamers with its latest offering, a battle royale game known as Open.
The company released a trailer at SXSW this week, which doesn’t reveal much about Open, but it gives the Ready Player One feel and type of imagery. Open has been described as the “hero” experience of The Readyverse, and will feature “nostalgia-infused-biomes” that is classic characters and franchises “with a game show-like competitive format.”
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An escape into the digital world
Cline earlier this year announced his intentions to launch a metaverse company, which was viewed as ironic to come from the writer of Ready Player One, a science fiction novel. The characters in the novel – about a dystopia, escape the seemingly harsh realities of the world into a metaverse-like gaming environment.
Now, Cline’s company is ready to give the world a chance to “tune all that out,” and have a feel of digital escapism at a time the present day world is getting “increasingly dystopian.”
As for the latest offering, the interactive platform for metaverse games and experiences derives its name from the principles that The Readyverse will champion including content interoperability and digital content ownership. It is however not clear to what extend the interoperability will get.
According to the company, it’s also about the kind of openness that Parzival, the hero of Ready Player One and Ready Player 2, espouses in Cline’s books.
The “iconic franchises”
The company has also described it as “the first genre-defining AAA metaverse gaming experience, interoperable with top-tier IP through Web3 tech. A multi-biome, multi-IP, Multi-mode battle royale experience, in development for PC and next generation platforms, will set the stage for the future of gaming.”
A Gizmodo report suggests Open will most likely be a game that can be enjoyed both on “computer and with a fancy AR/VR headset.”
Soon other franchises are expected to integrate their own characters into the gameplay, hence the “multi-IP.” Reebok, the DeLorean car, and Ready Player One are reportedly the only IPs confirmed among the “iconic franchises.”
Incorporating content and characters from several fanchises in a single game is nothing new, according to Readwrite.
Another game Fortnite has been doing the same since 2018 when it first teamed up with MCU in its fourth season collaboration.
From that time, Fortnite has been expanding its library of collaborations to cover skins, builds, and weapons from several IPs. Fortnite has expanded to include ancient topics like the Greek Gods, according to Readwrite.
Nostalgia-infused biomes
According to an article by Venture Beat, who covered Open’s announcement at SXSW this week, the game’s “immersive multiverse will be filled with nostalgia-infused biomes featuring characters and cultural legends across iconic franchises.”
One such “biome” is based specifically on the Ready Player One franchise itself.
“Challengers embark on game-show styled, multi-round collaborative and competitive game modes, but only one hero can emerge victorious,” reads the Open official description.
“Hone and showcase a vast array of gaming disciplines, where tactical positioning, sly movement, strategic shooting, and driving skills take center stage, as you join forces with worthy allies, plan together for strategic advantages, and engage in intense gameplay sessions.”
According to Readwrite, what is relatively unusual however is that Open is described as involving Web3 in some way, a new version of the web that involves decentralization and blockchain technologies among others.
And, for the game, the main appeal “tends to be its decentralized nature, meaning individuals can identify themselves without a governing authentication system.”
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